Acknowledge the situation you're in...

“Acceptance is not submission; it is acknowledgement of the facts of a situation. Then deciding what you’re going to do about it.” (Kathleen Casey Theisen) from Jack’s Winning Words blog. I have a feeling that lack of acceptance (denial, if you will) of what has happened to home values, at least in my area, is one of the biggest issues facing Realtors. Home sellers who refuse to see, or believe, that their home has lost the same 30-40% as everyone else’s home has and then deciding what to do about it are certainly a contributing factor to the stall of the market above $300,000 locally.

I track the market on a weekly basis and for months now (in fact for most of the year) the markets above $300K have been extremely slow and above $400K it has been dead, with the Days On Market (DOM) for listed houses at well over a year and with the $500K plus market over 2 years in some Townships. The $300 to 400K market has bounced up and down, but has stayed fairly consistently between 200 and 250 days in most townships that I track.

I believe that there are two major factors at work here – a lack of the traditional “move-up” buyers in the market right now; and, stubbornness on the part of the sellers to acknowledge the situation that they find themselves in and deal with it as they are undoubtedly being advised to do so by their Realtors - lower the price to the market value.

There seems to be a certain false sense of pride in some communities at their ability to “hold home values up”; albeit at the cost of there being no sales. I could claim that my house is worth $400K forever. No one would pay that for it, now or maybe ever; but I could brag at work that I live in a $400,000 house. Does that make sense? No more than the seller waving a 3-year old refi appraisal in my face and claiming that his house is still worth what they said back then.
I liked the other quote that was in Jack’s blog post, this one from Casey Stengel - “There comes a time in every man’s life, and I’ve had plenty of them.” As a Realtor, I can certainly relate to that. In fact it seems that every deal is a memorable one these days.